Page 39 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 3 - JOHANNESBURG TO DURBAN TO CAPE TOWN TO PORT ELIZABETH AND BACK TO JOHANNESBURG
of my early responsibilities was doing fire and security surveys of the properties we insured.
On reverting to the Indian business, there were some funny stories.
I simply did not like their curry or rice, nor their tea which was often served when I visited them. To me it was always too “wishy washy”. On one occasion they gave me tea and as they walked out of the room, I poured the tea into the flowerpot. When they came back, they said you’ve finished your tea already let us give you another cup. I said no thank you, I only have one cup a day, which is somewhat of a lie because I haven’t drunk tea in some 60 years.
As for lunches and dinners, I told them I just could not take their curry because it was too hot so what they did was they gave me an egg. But it wasn’t just simply one egg, they would give me a plate full of eggs. I soon went off eating eggs.
In fairness to them, the hospitality was exceptional. They had a number of contacts which enabled me to buy the best suits at the cheapest prices. I could buy any goods including motor cars at a huge discount. There was an occasion where one of my good friends was getting married and of course they had the biggest and brightest cars ever thought of – normally petrol guzzlers. Anyway, they lent me this brand new Cadillac which they had imported. I drove the couple to their wedding in it, playing Indian music.
On another occasion they invited me to give a talk about Education to some High School students. When I got there they opened the door and I was confronted with a hall packed with over 1000 pupils waiting for my pearls of wisdom.
For the Indian community if it was insurance matter, Daly was the man to contact. The business was extremely profitable. I really did not have any competition, because the Indian brokers always gave me the other company’s policies to quote against.
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